Tron
(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from Tron) Doug (vo): It’s the cult hit, Tron, and, boy, do I not want to talk about this movie. Not because it’s really bad or anything, but... Sighs I just hate talking about the plot. Why? 'Cause it’s really confusing! And I don’t know if that means I’m dumb or I’m just not a computer programmer or I just have a hard time paying attention to this kind of stuff, but, man, is it hard to follow. But I’ll give it a shot. Story Doug (vo): Flynn is a programmer who had an idea for a video game, but another person named Dillinger stole the idea and made millions off of it. So Flynn is determined to hack his company and see if he can find anything to prove that he invented the game first. But little does he know, he’s getting into something much bigger than he can ever imagine, and this is where it gets a little confusing. Flynn is sucked into the world of computers. There’s a whole other world going on that, apparently, we don’t know about, and it’s all going on inside our machines. Programs are represented by people, digital people, and they have a theory that they’re being controlled by other people named Users, but that’s more of, like, a religion, which is actually pretty clever. Flynn finds out he has to stay in this world because it'll please the Master Control Program, an evil entity that’s controlling Dillinger and forcing him to get information on the Pentagon and other government securities, obviously wanting to take over the world. (An image of M. Bison is briefly shown) Of course. But Flynn does come across a friend named Tron. Tron is a security program invented by his friend to actually stop this sort of thing from happening, from Dillinger getting too much information, or anyone getting too much information. So, it seems like he’s the only one that can feasibly stop it. Review Doug (vo): So, did I get that right? I hope I got that right, 'cause, man, it’s not easy to transcribe. I'll give the movie credit that the setup for the story is kind of told out of order and you do have to think in order to follow it, so it’s kind of nice that it’s not entirely spoon-fed to you. But since the computer age has exploded, we’ve gotten to know a lot of these terms, and, even now, it’s still kind of hard to follow. Now, that’s not to say you can’t entirely follow it, you just really got to pay attention. Maybe that’s why when the film first came out, it wasn’t that big a hit. But I can also see why that would also be how it got an audience overtime, because there is a lot of clever commentary, particularly with the religious aspect. The Users are apparently controlling the Programs, but the Programs also have souls of their own, so who’s really controlling who? There’s a lot of fun stuff that can be had with that, and they do tap on it quite a bit. focusing on the film's visuals and style is shown Doug (vo): You can tell the majority of the time spent on this movie is perfecting its look, which, while we’re at it, let’s talk about the look, because it is, by far, the best part of the movie. This film has a design that is all its own. I mean, yes, it’s 80s, yes, it’s bright neon against black, but at the same time, you look at this and the first thing you think is...Tron. There’s not really a lot of other movies that have this specific a design, and its use of CG animation was also groundbreaking and never really been done to this extent before. Nowadays, it’s pretty dated, but it’s still so stylized and looks so good that you kinda don’t care. You know it was the 80s and you know it’s just a product of the times, but, man, is it such a good-looking product of the times. Some of it looks a little cheap, like the costumes themselves, I don’t know, they’re supposed to be like neon and glowing, but they kind of look like pajamas half the time. Some set pieces, I think, were supposed to look like hard metal, but they look more like cardboard. But, again, you kind of give it a pass because it’s designed so nicely, and it is so unique. And it’s shot so well. I love it where even when you enter the human world, you’re not entirely sure if you’re in the human world. They keep going back and forth, sort of blending the realities, and that’s really smart, again, sort of playing with the idea of who’s controlling who. other clips, mostly showing all the aspects of the visuals, are shown Doug (vo): Tron is one of those movies where, when you really think about it, it is really smart and it is really clever, but you really got to take that time to think about it. In terms of just a straightforward action-adventure, it can please people, but like I said, you got to pay close, close attention to it. And I’m sure there’s things that don’t add up and are never explained and real computer programmers would probably look at this and be, like, "Hey, they forgot this or forgot that." But, honestly, I think that’s just the sci-fi element. That’s people making stuff up for entertainment, as well as try to get what other symbolic point they’re trying to get across. Final thought Doug (vo): I think because I’m not a huge computer guy, I can’t get into this stuff quite as much, but I do acknowledge it is a good film and it is very smart, even if it is cheesy here or there, and, again, even if the designs are a little dated. But it’s still something all its own. It’s a good flick, and my guess is, there’s a lot of people out there that would enjoy it even more than I do. It’s just a little too much going on for me to really love, but I liked it, and I’m glad I saw it. But it’s proven that it does have a die-hard audience and you can see why. It has a look that’s all its own, it has a story that’s all its own, and it is really clever. Yeah, it can be a little cheesy and awkward as well as incredibly dated, but still, when you get down to it, there’s only one Tron. film's opening sequence, showing the creation of a Program, is shown Category:Disneycember Category:Transcripts Category:Disney Category:Content Category:Guides